F 1783 ;'^^ul^^. 

.M25 

=»pvi SPEECH 



OF THE 

/ 



Hon. STEPHEN E. MALLORY, 



OF FX. O JRIID.^, 



ON THE 

a[ttlra Sill, 

idivwjfl i« tUi 3'mts o( tftf lluital states, 

February, 1859. 



Baltimore . . . Printed by John Murphy & Co^ 

Marble Buildixg, 182 Baltimore street. 

1859. 



.n-LS- 



46766 



9- 303 5^i 



SPEECH. 



Mr. MALLORY. Mr. President, I prefer going on now, late as 
the hour is, because I perceive that unless the friends of this bill stand 
by it, we shall not get a final vote upon it. In rising, particularly after 
the address to which we have just listened, to support a bill which 
appropriates money for the purchase of the Island of Cuba, my mind is 
embarrassed and oppressed, not only by the multitude and variety of 
the topics which cluster around it, and which, as we have seen here at 
this moment, have, more or less, entered into the discussion, but by the 
importance and gravity of the considerations which it involves. The 
honorable Senator [Mr. Collamer] who has just taken his seat, has 
referred to this as a sectional issue, as if the South were supporting this 
measure to get a few more slave States into the Union, to restore the 
equilibrium between the North and the South. 

Mr. President, I approach this measure in no sectional spirit, and 
shall discuss it without reference to its northern or southern aspect. 
The maintenance of the equilibrium between the slave-holding and non- 
slave-holding States, the equilibrium of numbers, or of population and 
representation, is a delusive hope, and one which I have long since sur- 
rendered. And, thank heaven, sir, we are independent of any such 
balance of power. Sir, let me assure the northern States here repre- 
sented, that if I supposed southern rights dependent upon such equili- 
brium, I would exert every effort to induce at least my own State to 
withdraw from the Union at once. 

Ko, sir; our rights in this confederacy are not to be held by the 
permission of a majority of States. They must ever depend, under the 
Constitution, upon our enlightened patriotism ; and, so long as we shall 
have loyal hearts and strong arms, with the blessing of heaven we will 
maintain them against all odds, — -as those will learn who undertake to 
invade them. 

Mr. President, this is no idle discussion. Whether we shall have a 
vote or not, the results are to be tangible for good or evil. If this bill 
shall pass both Houses of Congress, nay, if it shall pass but the Senate, 
I trust it will appear to Spain at least as a shadow which certainly tells 
of coming events. Nay, sir, whether it shall pass this body or not, the 
effect will be, inevitably, that by concentrating and enlightening public 
opinion, it will prove to Spain that there is a destiny which shapes the 
ends of this country, to which she, no less than ourselves, must submit. 
Therefore, sir, I want the discussion ; I believe the effect on the main 
question will be of vital consequence, whether the bill shall pass or not. 

I desire to discuss this question fairly, in its broadest national aspect, 
and hence I avow the opinion, here upon the threshold of the discus- 
sion, that Cuba is not for sale for money; that in my judgment she has 



6 

acquire dorainion and ascendency in that part of the world. Wifhin seven years 
after the time when their independence had been established, and finally recognized 
in 1783, we find them setting up a claim of free navigation of the Mississippi from 
its source to the Gulf of iMe'xico; and it is not a little curious to see what was the 
opportunity which they took of asserting their right against Spain — a power that 
had materially assisted them in obtaining their independence. In the year 1790, it 
will be recollected that a dispute had arisen between England and Spain respecting 
Nootka Sound. Whilst these two countries were arming, and everything appeared 
to threaten war between them, the United States thought that they saw, in the em- 
barrassment of Spain, an opening to claim the navigation as of right. Whether 
such a claim could or could not be sustained by any principle of the law of nations, 
is a question which I will not now stop to examine. The affirmative was at once 
boldly assumed by America, and her demand proceeded upon that assumption. The 
right once so alfirmed, what does the House think was the corollary which the Gov- 
ernment of the United Slates built upon their assertion of their supposed right? I 
will give it in the words of Mr. Jefferson himself, not a private individual, but the 
Secretary of State, conveying the instructions of his Government to Mr. Carmichael, 
then the American envoy at Madrid: 'You know,' writes Mr. Jefferson, 'that the 
navigation cannot be practiced without a port, where the sea and river vessels may 
meet and exchange loads, and those employed about them may be safe and unmo- 
lested. The right to use a thing comprehends a right to the means necessary to its 
use, and without which it would be useless.' I know not what the expounders of 
the law of nations in the Old World Avill have to say to this new and startling doc- 
trine. In this instruction, Avhich is dated the 2d of August, 1790, the principle is 
only laid down in the abstract. 

"I will now show the House the special application of it to the claim in question, 
b}'- quoting another letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Short, the American envoy at 
Paris, dated only eight days after the former, namely, the 10th of August. It is as 
follows: ' The idea of ceding the island of New Orleans could not be hazarded to 
Spain in the first step: it would be too disagreeable at first view; because this island, 
with its town, constitutes, at present, their principal settlement in that part of their 
dominion, (Louisiana,) containing about ten thousand Avhite inhabitants, of every 
age and sex. Reason and events, however, may, by little and little, familiarize them 
to it. That we have a right to some spot as an entrepot for our commerce, may be 
at once affirmed. I suppose this idea (the cession of New Orleans) too much, even 
for the Count de Montmorin at firsts and that, therefore, you will find it prudent to 
urge and get him to recommend to the Spanish Court, only in general terms, a port 
near the mouth of the river, with a circumjacent territory sufficient for its support, 
well defined, and extra-territorial to Spain, leaving the idea to future growth.' " 

He quotes this extract from a letter of Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Monroe, 
of the 4th of May, 1806 : 

" AVe begin to broach the idea that we consider the whole Gulf Stream as our own 
waters, in which hostilities and cruising are to be frowned on for the present, and 
prohibited so soon as either consent or force will permit us." 

Mr. Huskissou continues : 

"If the United States 'broached this idea,' in 1806, they are not likely to have 
abandoned it in 1819, when, in addition to Louisiana, they procured, by treaty with 
Spain, the further important cession of the Floridas. That it is a growing, rather 
than a waning, principle of their polic}', I think we may infer from a letter which we 
find in this correspondence, not written, indeed, by Mr. Jefferson in any public char- 
acter, but addressed by him, as a person exercising, from his retirement, the greatest 
sway in the councils of the Union, to the President. This letter, dated so lately as 
the 24ih of October, 1823, discusses the interest of the United States in respect to 
Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico, and these are the statements which it avows : ' I can- 
didly confess that I ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition that could 
ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this 
island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus border- 
ing upon it, as well as those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of 
our political well-being. Yet I am sensible that this can never be obtained, even with 
her own consent, but by war.'" 

In connection with this subject, because the opinions of my friend 
from South Carolina [Mr. Hammond] have been quoted here, I looked 
to his speech and I found that his friends might be misled into the idea 



that even Mr. Calhoun was opposed to the acquisition of Cuba. Sir, 
I believe that he was in favor of the acquisition of Cuba at the verj 
earliest period compatible with the honor of the country. In this body, 
in 1848, in a speech upon the Yucatan question, he said : 

" There are cases of interposition where I would resort to the hazard of war, with 
all its calamities. Am I asked for one ? I designate the case of Cuba. So long as 
Cuba remains in the hands of Spain — a friendly Power, a Power of which we have 
no dread — it should continue to be, as it has been, the policy of all administrations 
ever since T have been connected with the Government, to let Cuba remain there; 
but with the fixed determination, which I hope never will be relinquished, that if 
Cuba pass from her, it shall not be into any other hands but ours ; this, not from a 
feeling of ambition, not from a desire for the extension of dominion, but because that 
island is indispensable to the safety of the United States; or rather, because it is in- 
dispensable to the safety of the United States that this island should not be in certain 
hands." 

The remark which is put into Mr. Calhoun's mouth, that " Cuba is to 
us forbidden fruit," he never used. As I said before, it is believed that 
he desired the acquisition of Cuba, at the very earliest day compatible 
with the honor of the country. 

Sir, if authorities can add weight to our Cuban policy, I could cite 
hundreds of names of leading men of all parties who favored its acqui- 
sition. I am yet to learn one who was not in favor of the acquisition 
of Cuba at the very earliest moment consistent with the interests and 
honor of the country. 

Now, sir, whence comes this general unanimity ? Why is it that the 
varied interests of our country, differing widely as do our States in 
population, in climate, in soil, in production, have generally concurred 
in the wisdom and policy of regarding this as a great national measure ? 
Why is it that the pro-slavery cotton-planter of Texas, and the aboli- 
tionist manufacturer of Massachusetts, here find a common bond of 
union and a common platform, and are to-day, while I am speaking, 
battling ^ together for this very policy ? Why is it that the State of 
Connecticut has adopted a resolution, within a very few days past, in 
favor of the acquisition of Cuba ? Here let me say, that she was the 
first State to lead off for the annexation of Texas. 

Mr. FESSENDEN". Does the Senator say the legislature of Con- 
necticut has passed any such resolution ? 
Mr. MALLORY. No sir. 

Mr. FESSENDEN. It was passed by a Democratic caucus. 
Mr. MALLORY. That is authority for that State, of course. 
Mr. BENJAMIjST. It was a Democratic State convention ; not a 
caucus. 

Mr. MALLORY. I ask, whence comes this general unanimity of 
feeling ? It is not confined to the South ; it is equally found North, 
East, and West ; and, as this discussion shall progress, it will become, 
in my judgment, overwhelming, and will shape somewhat the future 
policy of the country. Sir, this general feeling is not only based upon 
a conviction that the industrial interests of the whole country are con- 
cerned in this measure, but it springs, too, from the conviction that the 
first blow which the interests of our country is ever to receive, must be 
from the direction of Cuba. It must necessarily be so. I think I can 
demonstrate that, if danger ever threaten us at all from abroad, it must 
be from a point contiguous to our shores, and under the control of an- 
other Power ; and the most important point of all on the face of the 
earth, in that view, is Cuba. 



8 

In the report which the Committee on Foreign Relations have pre- 
sented us with, we have important statistics of the trade, commerce, and 
resources of the Island of Cuba. 

'Now, sir, whatever influence these considerations may have upon the 
minds of gentlemen as to the price to be paid for Cuba, they can cer- 
tainly have none whatever on the question of whether we ought to have 
it or not. That is a preliminary question. When that is decided, the 
statistics will furnish us with information to guide us as to the price ; and 
in connection with this we must also consider the amount which the 
public property of Cuba herself can contribute. 

I said that the first bloAV which this country is ever to receive, in any 

I: contest, will, in all probability, be from the direction of Cuba. The 
Gulf of Mexico is emphatically an American sea. Its waters wash the 
i shores of five of our States. All the rivers of Texas and Alabama, 
; and part of those of Georgia and Florida, flow into it, together with 
the Mississippi, and all its tributaries, exposing at least twenty-five 
thousand miles of internal navigation. The products of fifteen States 
of the Union seek a market over its waters, and upon its bosom floats 
j a commerce which to-day is worth $300,000,000 ; and all this commerce 
passes between a narrow strait ninety-four miles wide, presenting some 
seventy-eight miles of available navigation. 

This space six steamers may bridge across, and speak each other every 
fifteen minutes by signals ; and by an enemy possessing a naval superi- 
ority this would be done, and the Gulf of Mexico would be sealed up 
^ as securely as if nature had reared a wall from the bottom of the ocean 
1 to the top. There, at the mouth, you may say, a hostile power would 
\ lie in wait, and sink or capture everything that pretended to enter it. 
In form it may be regarded, to use a familiar illustration, as a demijohn 
on its side ; and through its mouth, between Cuba on the south and 
1 Florida on the north, floats this vast commerce, upon which the hills of 
j Cuba, like sentry boxes, look down. 

I Are we not justified then in asserting that the first contest — and this 

\ must be a naval contest — in which we shall ever become involved, will 

->^ \ be here ? It must necessarily be so ; because no sea upon the habitable 

^,\ globe offers such a temptation to a maritime enemy against our com- 

\ merce, as the Gulf of Mexico. 

A war with either of the great maritime powers would necessarily 
i^ find us unprepared ; and though the wonderful resources and matchless 
\creative powers of our country would eventually provide for any emer- 
gency, the Gulf of Mexico, — with Cuba in the hands of Spain, — would 
be to us a closed sea. 

There is another outlet to the Gulf of Mexico that ought not to be 
lost sight of, between the west end of Cuba and Yucatan, between Cape 
,Catoche and Cape San Antonio. That outlet is one hundred and four 
/miles wide ; but from the adverse winds and currents which prevail there 
for eight-twelfths of the year, and that portion of the year, too, 
when the great cotton crop and the products of the West are upon the 
sea, no sailing ship ever attempts it. They go through the other way. 
From the prevailing winds and currents there and the circuitous passage 
through the Caribbean sea and out through the Mona Pass, it would 
prolong the voyage to New York to twenty-five days, when in fact it 
ought only to take twelve days ; and under no circumstances will com- 
merce seek that path. 



9 

The mouth of the Mississippi, and the Gulf terminus of the Tejuan- 
tepec road, are here at this strait, and not at the Balize or at St. Juan 
de Nicaragua. 

If a bale of cotton be cast adrift at New Orleans and left to the ac- 
tion of winds and currents, it passes out at the Balize, takes a south- 
eastwardly course, doubles the Tortugas, and reaches the open Atlantic 
through this strait ; and from the lone and distant fortification of Tor- 
tugas fleets of merchantmen are daily seen, in the freighting season, 
making their way to or from the Gulf througli this pass. 

The importance of a position like Cuba, a natural fortress at our very\ 
doors, has never been, and can never be disregarded by a statesman ; j 
and by all parties, for fifty years, its acquisition has been an admitte(^ 
necessity. 

Our language to Spain upon this subject has heretofore apprised her 
that while we would never permit any other power to acquire Cuba, we 
would remain satisfied with her tenure of it, and take no steps to dis- 
possess her. And, sir, this is the language held to-day, even by the 
opponents of this bill. 

The Senator from Wisconsin [Mr. Doolittle] speaking of (if not 
for) his party, says : 

" These letters of the Secretaries of State of the United States show clearly what 
the policy of this Government is in relation to the acquisition of the island of Cuba. 
That policy is based, as I have stated, upon three foundations, the first of which is, 
that we will never consent, cost what it may, to the transfer of that island by Spain 
to any other European Power. Such a transfer would be resisted by the unanimous 
voice of the American people, and especially by the Republican party, as against its 
policy, and against all our history. We would resist the transfer to England or to 
France, if need be, resist it to the very death, cost what it might of treasure or of 
blood." 

I am free to express the opinion, Mr. President, that the period of 
voluntary acquiescence in Spain's possession of Cuba, has passed. We 
have heretofore respected it because we believed that Spain was both 
able and willing to govern and maintain the Island in a manner con- 
sistent with the safety of our country, — an ability and a willingness to 
which she can no longer pretend, as I am prepared to show. 

Have gentlemen reflected, when they talk about being satisfied with 
Cuba remaining in the hands of Spain, that this language was used by 
our fathers in our infancy, and in the day of Spain's strength when she 
occupied a position before the nations of the earth that she no longer 
occupies ? 

In the event of war between ourselves and any maritime Power to- 
morrow, what would be the condition of Cuba ? The policy of Spain 
would be to remain strictly neutral, to declare the ports of Cuba open 
to both belligerents alike. She undoubtedly would have the right to 
treat both belligerents alike, and neither would have the right to com- 
plain. In that case, the numerous ports of Cuba, many of them excel- 
lent, would be at the vpry points where the enemy would place them. 
And the enemy would have all the advantages of ports of refuge, 
resort and repair, without the responsibility of defending them. 

During the late war between Russia and the allies, we were perfectly 
neutral, and made powder and gims for both parties, our ships trans- 
ported the troops of the allies to the Crimea, and would have been just 
as ready to transport the troops of Kussia. 



10 

'Now, sir, if I am correct in my views of the matchless geographical 
position of Cuba, and the perils to us which it involves as a military, 
stragetic point, does it not fully justify, nay, does it not demand from 
us prompt, energetic, and decisive action ? Can we wisely delay action ? 

When I say that Spain is at this time more unwilling to part with 
Cuba than she has ever been, I keep in view the fact that her revenue 
from it directly, and her commerce with it, have not only greatly aug- 
mented, but that its importance and value in her eyes have been greatly 
enhanced by the light in which we regard it, and the price which we 
have signified our readiness to pay for it. 

Her unwillingness to part with it has also been sustained by the 
active and unceasing influence of Great Britain and France, an influence 
prompted not by any special interest of theirs in this quarter of the 
Globe, but by a desire to thwart and embarrass the policy and progress 
of our country. While she has persistently opposed our Cuban policy, 
and even interfered elsewhere to prevent our acquisition of simple coal 
deposits for our navy in other seas, Great Britain has taken, with a 
strong hand, islands, countries, empires, and millions of people ; and 
on this continent, from the Orinoco river up along the Spanish Main to 
the Caribbean Sea, and thence through the Yucatan Pass to Honduras 
and the Bay Islands, out by the Bahamas to the distant Bermudas, she 
has seized upon salient and stragetic points wherever a gun could be 
planted or a standard reared. 

Now, sir, I am for proclaiming to her and to the world, that this 
question of Cuba is an American question, and that this Government 
looks forward to the time, and that not a distant one, when the Gulf of 
Mexico shall be a closed sea, as much under our jurisdiction and con- 
trol as is the Irish Channel under those of England : and that no 
foreign flag shall then float upon its bosom but by the permission of the 
United States. 

Britain, amongst other pretences for interference in Cuban afi'airs, 
sets up her right to suppress its African slave trade, and this brings me 
to the consideration of this branch of the subject, and I shall dispose of 
it briefly. 

AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

I am indisposed, Mr. President, to connect, in any manner the ques- 
tion of slavery with our Cuban policy ; for they have never been in any 
manner connected by any of the leading statesmen of our country who 
have advocated the acquisition of Cuba. 

We have discussed this question of domestic slavery for twenty years, 
and the results have been sectional divisions and alienations where a 
common interest demanded union. 

It has certainly not advanced the interests of the negro race in the 
way in which the false philanthropy of its false friends desired ; for it 
has not freed a single slave ; but it has proved, beyond all question, 
that the condition of the negro slave in the United States is pre-emi- 
nently superior to that of the free negro in any part of the earth, and 
that the negro's greatest happiness and greatest usefulness are best 
secured under our system of domestic servitude. 

Inasmuch as I am prepared to show, as an inducement to some 
gentlemen to vote with us on this measure, that the African slave trade 



11 

in Cuba would cease with the transfer of the Island to the United 
States, I will briefly state how it is at present conducted. 

It will be remembered that Spain relinquished, by the treaty of 1811, 
all right to engage in the African slave trade, and received from Great 
Britain two millions of dollars mainly for this concession. The trade, 
however, did not in the least abate. In 1835 Britain forced Spain to 
make another treaty, whose provisions were more stringent, and by the 
instructions under which, it was supposed, the trade would be broken 
up ; but still it continues, though upon a more limited scale, while the 
''horrors of the middle passage" have been greatly augmented by the 
increased risks of capture. 

The manner in which this trade is conducted, though more or less a 
mystery to the world, may be readily understood, and it may be briefly 
stated thus. 

Under the instructions of the Spanish Government, issued with the 
apparent design to prevent the trade, slaves on the island of Cuba are 
registered, and to their owners are issued what are called in Spanish 
cedulas, — which may be translated permits, — and these cedulas are 
printed in books uniformly, one ]iundred in each, and issued under the 
authority of the Captain General; and it is made the duty of owners 
to have cedulas for their slaves. 

A party wishing to engage in the slave trade usually purchases a 
fast sailing vessel, — generally an American vessel, and pays for her at 
Havana or in the United States, upon the condition of her being 
delivered on the coast of Africa. She sails for Cabinda or some other 
point of the slave coast with the few articles required for a return slave 
voyage, — under the command of her American master or mate, with a 
crew to bring her back; and on her arrival on the coast of Africa, she 
is turned over to her new owners, the master pockets his vessel's 
register, returns home, delivers it to the Custom House to cancel his 
registry bond; and upon it is written "vessel sold abroad." 

The Spanish owner, the moment he takes command, offers so many 
of the American seaman as he wants, liberal wages, varying from three 
to five hundred dollars for the return voyage, and not unfrequently 
secures their services. The water casks are then filled, the slave deck 
laid, the caboose and coppers arranged, and when a favorable off-shore 
breeze springs up the slaves are taken on board, in two hours if neces- 
sary, and the vessel, with her new owners and cargo, is off for Cuba. 

The place of landing in Cuba is previously arranged, and as the time 
for the arrival of the vessel approaches those interested in the enter- 
prize are at their posts. Cedulas have been obtained from the officer 
who does this part of the dirty work of the Captain General, for the 
number of slaves expected, two and a half ounces (or forty two dollars 
and fifty cents) being paid for each as the Captain General's fee. 

The slaves are landed, the cedulas being exhibited to the chief 
authority, and to the Captain of the Partido of the District, to each of 
whom handsome gratuities are paid for their connivance. 

This is the ordinary course of proceeding when the afi'air is successful, 
and the profits it yields are enormous ; the bozal costing the trader about 
seventy dollars and selling for from eight to twelve hundred in Cuba. 

But it not unfrequently happens that Mr. Crawford, the British Consul 
General at Havana, learning of the intended importation, — spiritedly 



12 

remonstrates and demands the Captain Gfeneral's interference ; and this 
officer, in appearance at least, adopts active measures to prevent it ; but 
it rarely amounts to anything. If any slaves are taken, the affair is so 
managed that the trader is suffered to escape with enough to make a 
fair profit ; and if any participant has to be imprisoned for a few days, 
it is usually the Captain of the Partido, who runs this risk and charges 
accordingly. Thus is the slave trade conducted ; and while it is mani- 
fest that the trade could not exist a day without the connivance of the 
Captain General, it is equally obvious that it is impossible to obtain 
accurate information as to the number of slaves annually introduced. I 
have examined all the received.authorities upon this point, and I have 
reason to believe the number generally overstated. 

Lippincott says, that in 1844 when the trade was uncommonly active, 
the importation reached ten thousand ; but General Crawford, whose 
means of obtaining correct information, entitle his statements to great 
consideration, does not estimate it at over six thousand. 

Mr. President, I totally dissent from the assertion that the plantation 
slaves of Cuba are replaced by importations every seven years, and 
from the assertion of my friend from South Carolina, [Mr. Hammond,] 
that the chmate of Cuba is adverse to the African. Cuba is but a 
degree south of Florida, where our statistics show the negro is healthier 
than in any other portion of our country. 

The Southern Keys of Florida are in L. 24° 33', and Cuba lies south- 
east about ninety-four miles from them ; and while Florida is but little 
elevated above tide-water, a back-bone of mountains traverses Cuba 
from East to West. 

With similar treatment the plantation negro in Cuba w^ould be what 
he is in Florida, the freest from disease and care, the happiest and the 
most enduring of his race on the face of the earth. 

But it must be remembered that so long as the slave trade exists, 
increase by births is discouraged not only by the interest of the planters, 
but by the prejudices of those in cities owning domestics. 

The trader finds the expense and trouble of bringing females equal to 
that of bringing males from Africa ; and as the female is worth only 
about one-half or three-fifths as much as the male of the same age, but 
few females are brought, the proportion being about one to six. 

Hence we find scarcely a female on some plantations except a few 
domestics about the houses. 

Now, sir, annex Cuba and abolish the trade, and the females would 
be sent from the cities and towns to the plantations, their places would 
be supplied by the Coolies or the Islanias, and the domestic slavery of 
Cuba, like the Island generally, would soon be Americanized. 

I trust that I do not shock the prejudices of any of my friends when 
I say, that the continuance of the African slave trade is the greatest 
curse that could have been inflicted upon Cuba ; for to that and that 
alone is she indebted for the deathly pall that wraps her in despotism 
to-day. 

• Spain has violated her treaty obligations to encourage it, — because 
she deliberately adopted the horrible policy of ever keeping a large 
number of negroes, fresh from their jungles in Africa, ready to turn upon 
the people ; savages, with whom slaughter is pastime ; and one of her 
ministers, with a cold-blooded forecast unsurpassed, has calculated that 



13 

tile ability of Spain to turn these negroes upon the people, is equal, in 
controlling Cuba, to an army of one hundred thousand men. 

It has kept the people in constant terror of insurrection, and afforded 
a plea to the crown for keeping amongst them a standing army of sol- 
diers, spies, and informers. Upon this point General Concha's author- 
ity will be admitted. Upon the expiration of his first term of service 
in Cuba, he published a memoir, in which he comes to the conclusion 
that to the balance between the white and colored races is Spain in- 
debted for her tenure of the Island, and for the failure of Cuba to go 
off with the other American provinces in 1823, when Spain had but 
three regiments there. 

The existence of this slave trade has moreover furnished to Great 
Britain a pretext for interfering, from time to time, in the affairs of 
Cuba in a very remarkable manner ; and I think we are justified in be- 
lieving, nay, I think we would be culpably incredulous were we not to 
believe, that England's stern and settled policy is to attain the libera- 
tion of every negro imported into Cuba since 1820, and thus to reduce 
it to the condition of St. Domingo. 

From the following dispatch of Mr. Crawford to Lord Clarendon in 
1855, written at Havana, we can infer the rate of bribery in this trade : 

"Your Lordship will be able to form some idea of the nature of such arrangements, 
by the details I am enabled to furnish of what was effected at Santa Cruz, on the 
south side of the island, when 500 Bozals were landed near that place in August 
last, viz : 

Gold— Oimces. 

To the Commanding officer 468 

To the Captain of the Port . . . . ' 234 

To the Collector of the Port 200 

To the Tide-Surveyor 200 

Total 1,102 

This arrangement was made upon 468 slaves, the rest being weak and sickly, 
(rather over 40 dollars a head) which must be considered a remarkably cheap bar- 
gain of its kind. " 

AFRICANIZATION OF CUBA. 

I trust, sir, that it may not be deemed unbecoming in me, or violative 
of any courtesy which this body, and which I, as an American Senator, 
owe to a friendly power, to stand here in my place and denounce to the 
world my conviction, as I now do, that this cold blooded and barbarous 
policy is being pursued by that Government. 

The views entertained in the past as well as in the present, by Great 
Britain and ourselves, upon the present and future condition of the 
African race on this continent, are well determined by the course and 
action of each. She, partly induced by a spurious philanthropy, 
partly moved by a desire to develop her Indian Empire and to injure 
the United States, adopted the emancipation measure, and prostrated 
the most productive, prosperous and valuable colonies that ever an 
empire owned, to beggary, ignorance and barbarism ; and in this con- 
dition she maintains them that the negro may be free, — ^^free to violate 
all his duties to himself, to his fellow and to his God, — a freedom which 
reduces him to a hellish slavery, and conducts him back to his original 
barbarism. And having done this with her own colonies, — and her 



14 

objects yet unattained, are we to suppose she will pause in her career 
with the colonies of Spain ? 
\ To hamper, crib, cabin and confine the progress of our country, she 
I bestows unceasing vigilance. Why, sir, I remember that you yourself, 
[Mr. Mason in the chair,] not two years ago, as the head of our Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, brought to the notice of this body not 
only her encroachments on this continent, but her active interference to 
prevent us from acquiring simple coal deposits for our navy. 

Her trade with Cuba now is considerable, but if it were Africanized 
it would pass at once, as a free black colony under her protection, at 
the doors of our Southern States; and she would not only have a 
monopoly of its trade, but the regulation of its tariff. 

But let us look at the direct evidence before us. Great Britain's 
tone and language upon our Cuban policy have been uniform for a half 
a century, always expressing her determination against its tranfer to us. 

I will not go over the evidence so ably presented by my friend from 
Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] to show that she has twice attempted to 
get Cuba secretly. She values Gibralter as a possession beyond all 
price because it is the key to the Mediterranean ; but what is Gibralter 
in comparison to Cuba, where she could not only command our Medi- 
terranean, but where she could, fur all time to come, plant a free negro 
soldiery upon our borders, and within a night of our shores ? 

But I will pass on to the direct proof of her policy. 

I have just seen an able article in La Patrie, (published in Paris,) 
of the Itth ult., in which this language is used : 

" To protect Cuba against the covetous Americans, Spain ought, above all, to count 
on England, who has also Jamaica and so man}' other important islands to defend ; 
but the former intimate relations between Spain and England have greatly changed 
during the last twenty years ; and the principal cause, not to say the only cause, of 
this coldness is the undeniable continuance of the Cuban slave trade and the tolerance, 
but little disguised, that the Spanish authorities afford to this inhuman traffic. This 
continuance of the trade, in obliging England to maintain, from self-esteem, a squad- 
ron in the sea of the Antilles, is the source of continued difficulties which spring up 
periodically between England and the United States. * * * 

" The Spanish Ministry knows well — and that is the chief motive that determines 
its present conduct — that the abolition of slavery is the most infallible means of 
assuring to Spain the possession of Cuba. Independence would suit certain planters 
who have daily business relations with New Orleans and New York. The most solid 
ftid of Spanish rule are the two hundred thousand mulattoes of Cuba, who are to-day- 
free men, in possession of every civil and political right, and w'ho would, the day- 
following its annexation to the United States, fall back to the level of the slaves. To 
fortify this class by the addition of all the negroes still in the bonds of slavery would 
be to raise an insurmountable barrier to American invasion. Free ihem, and they 
would sooner perish under the banner of Spain than submit to the re-establishment 
of service by the hands of Americans. Thus has it always been believed that the 
Governors General have received, in their secret instructions, the authorization to 
proclaim their emancipation the day in which the authority of Spain in Cuba would 
be in peril. It is much better for Spain to gradually prepare the emancipation than 
have recourse to such an extreme measure. 

"Cuba, peopled by mulattoes and free blacks, would no longer be the prey that 
to-day the Americans aspire after. The Southern States urge the acquisition of that 
island because they could divide it into two States, and could thus re-establish in the 
Senate and House the equilibrium of votes, which now stand to their disadvantage. 
Cuba, besides, would serve Iheni as a depot, to which thej' could draw the negroes of 
Africa, and to give a great impetus to the slave trade. With the perspicacity and the 
vigilance of which the American Custom House officers have given evidence, it would 
not be difficult to land at Charleston or Baltimore, as coming from Cuba, negroes 
brought directly from Guinea or Mozambique; and thus they could put an end to the 
period of high priced slaves, this plague which ruins the producers of sugar and cot- 



15 

ton. But Cuba, peopled With free men; Cuba, bringing as citizens into the great 
republic of men a people of mixed blood, and of veritable negroes, would be no more 
the aim of the men of the South ; she would, on the contrary, be a dangerous exam- 
ple and a source of continual apprehensions. 

"Spain is, therefore, well inspired, in seeking in the emancipation of the blacks the 
salvation of her finest colony. May the eflForts of the O'Donnell Cabinet be crowned 
with success. • May brilliant experience show once more that true policy is that which 
serves best the interests of humanity." 

This extract is significant. 

l^ow, sir, let me ask the attention of the Senate to a few extracts 
from dispatches of British ministers touching this question ; and first I 
will read from a dispatch addressed by Mr. Crawford, at Havana, to 
the Captain Grcneral of Cuba, dated 31st March, 1855. 

The " emancipated " here alluded to are those who had been captured 
on being imported and farmed out with a ticket as emancipados. 

" T am also inst;ructed to refer your Excellency to the assurance given by the Conde 
de Alcoy to Lord Howden, in March, 1853, that all the captured slaves' in Cuba — 
Whose liberty the Spanish Crown bound itself, by the Treaty of 1817, to guarantee — 
should receive their freedom before the end of 1853; and at the same time those 
captured negroes to whom immediate liberty was promised by Spain, under Article 
Xlir of the Treaty of 1835, should be liberated as soon as they had completed a term 
of five years, to be reckoned from the date of their last assignment. 

" I am therefore instructed by the Earl of Clarendon to state these views to your 
Excellency on the part of her Majesty's Government, and to remind your Excellencj 
of the contents of the despatch from General Valdez of the 30th of April 1842, which 
was communicated officially to Her Majesty's Government, and in which General 
Valdez promised that, on the completion of five years from that date, all the eman- 
cipated negroes were to enjoy perfect freedom." 

Here is the British Consul- Greneral writing a diplomatic note to the 
Captain-General of Cuba, under instructions from Lord Clarendon, 
announcing to him the failure of the promise made by General Yaldez, 
that every negro imported into Cuba since 1820 sJiould be free. If 
our authority for the position which we take rested only here, it would 
certainly be sufficient to arouse the attention of this country. Who can 
contemplate this condition of things in the Island of Cuba calmly ? I 
ask is there a patriot who does not shrink from the Africanization of 
Cuba — a term which vividly recalls the unutterable horrors of St. 
Domingo, — and which embraces within its ample signification murder, 
rapine and desolation ; — and lives there a man, honored by the Ameri- 
can people by their confidence here, who would for a moment hesitate 
to interpose all the power of this government to avert from Cuba, from 
our age and our race, so dark, so sad a fate ? 

In i^f^ England endeavored to establish a British tribunal in Cuba, 
with power to decide the status of the negroes making application to 
it. Lord Aberdeen, in a dispatch of 31st December, 1843, to Mr. 
Bulwer, then British Minister in Spain, holds the following language in 
relation to this attempt, and its temporary abandonment : 

"In 1841 the draft of a Convention was transmitted to Madrid, by which it was 
proposed to institute, by the aid of British functionaries, an examination into the 
titles by which the slave population of Cuba is held in servitude. Encouraged by the 
novel appearance of good faith on the part of the Government of Cuba, as it was 
then administered, her Majesty's Government admitted the weight of certain objec- 
tions raised against that proposal by the government at Madrid, and forebore for the 
time to press it." 

The "draft of a convention" here referred to had for its object an 
agreement between Spain and Great Britain, that British functionaries 



16 

should proceed to Cuba, go upon the plantations, call the negroes 
before them and determine for themselves the titles by which they 
were held, with the view of liberating all introduced since 1820; and 
to this humiliating proposal Spain lent a willing ear, and sent it to 
Cuba to ascertain public sentiment there upon it. 

It produced an indignant remonstrance from the Cabans' and it was 
temporarily laid aside, but not abandoned. 

The Count Villanuera (who was then Intendente) said : 
"It is not to be presumed that any white man will be disposed to submit to so 
hard a fate. They will prefer to emigrate to foreign countries to earn their liveli- 
hood and save the lives of their children, if they do not previously adopt the course 
which a state of desperation would prescribe. * * * * There has been but one 
feeling or opinion since the arrival of the publications in question from Madrid, 
which is that the Island would be irrecoverably lost by it to the mother country, 
and to its inhabitants, who would prefer any extreme to the calamity of sacrificing 
their fortunes, endangering their lives, and remaining in a state of subordination to 
the negroes." 

In 1850 and 1851, these demands were again pressed by England 
with great energy and warmth, but were now resisted by Spain, On 
the 23d March, 1851, Senor Bertan de Lis writes to Lord Howden : 

"But it seems impossible that the well known perspicuity of the Cabinet of Lon- 
don should have overlooked in its turn the immense responsibility imposed upon the 
Queen's government by the present circumstances of the Spanish Antilles, and the 
stringent duty in which it is placed, of proceeding with the greatest prudence and 
circumspection, in all matters which may exercise either directly or indirectly any 
influence upon the social and political situation of those colonies. 

"You are aware of the dangers by which these colonies are menaced. You know 
that for the prevention of these dangers, for the consolidation of the security and 
preservation of its transatlantic possessions, her Majesty's Government, hitherto, 
unfortunately, reduced to its own means, cannot as yet rely upon the decided protec- 
tion of its most important allies." 

In reply to this, on the 10th of July, 1851, Lord Palmerston writes 
to Lord Howden : 

" The Spanish Government will do well to consider that if such a course of pro- 
ceeding shall continue, the people of this country, instead of looking with displea- 
sure at attempts which may be made' to sever Cuba from the Spanish monarchy, may 
be led to view with satisfaction the accomplishment of an event, which, in conse- 
quence of the conduct of the Spanish colonial authorities, will have become the only 
means of putting an end to the commission of crimes which the Spanish crown 
solemnly bound itself, many years ago, utterly and for ever to prevent any Spanish 
subject from committing." 

On the tth of August, 1851, Lord Palmerston to Lord Howden : 

"Her Majesty's Government deem it due to the frankness which oughtito charac- 
terize the intercourse of friendly governments, to let the Spanish Government know, 
that if, as seems to be the case, the Government of Madrid is unable to cause its 
subordinate oflBcers in Cuba to carry into execution the treaty engagements of the 
Spanish crown for the suppression of the slave trade, and to enforce the laws 
promulgated by the crown of Spain in execution of those engagements, the British 
Government must deem itself obliged to take the matter into their own hands, and 
to have recourse to such measures in relation to it as may appear to Her Majesty's 
Government best calculated to accomplish the purpose in view." 

In another dispatch, Lord Palmerston says : 

"With reference to that passage in M. Miraflores' note, in which he states that the 
Spanish government cannot understand how her Majesty's government can seriously 
recommend a measure which would prove very injurious to the natives of Cuba, 
when they also recommend that the Spanish government should conciliate the affec- 
tions of those Cubans, I have to instruct your lordship to observe to M. de Mira- 
flores that the slaves of Cuba form a large portion, and by no means an unimportant 



17 

one, of the population of Cuba; and that any steps taken to provide for their eman- 
dpadon would, therefore, as far as the black population are concerned, be quite in 
unison with the recommendation made by her Majesty's government; that measures 
should be adopted for contenting the people of Cuba, with a view to secure the con- 
nexion between that island and the Spanish crown; and it must be evident that if 
the negro population of Cuba were rendered free, that fact would create a most 
powerful element of resistance to any scheme for annexing Cuba to the United States, 
where slavery still exists." 

Here I will close my review of British dispatehes on this point, 
observing only that in 1853 England and Spain seem to have arrived at 
a conclusion mutually satisfactorj^, suddenly and unexpectedly ; for con- 
flicting dispatches were written on the same day by the ministers of 
both. 

On the 16th of March the Earl of Clarendon writes to Lord Howden 
(at Madrid) that the position of Spain ^'endangers the friendly rela- 
tions betiveen the tiuo countries ;" and on the same day Lord Howden 
writes to the Earl of Clarendon that the "Spanish government has 
agreed to a settlement of a question which has so long been a matter 
of painful dispute.''^ 

As yet we know not the details of this " settlement,''^ but Lord John 
Russell, on the 4th of May following, showed that they were satisfactory 
to England ; and from the course adopted towards us, we are justified 
in believing that they embraced France. When we rejected the over- 
tures of England and France to become a party to the Tripartite 
Treaty, Lord John Russell directed the British minister here to say, that 

" While admitting fully the right of the United States to reject the proposal made 
by Lord Malmesbury a,nd Mons. de Turgot, Great Britain must at once resume her 
entire liberty, and upon any occasion that may call for it, be free to act either singly 
or in conjunction with other powers, as to her may seem fit." 

And subsequently. Lord Clarendon, as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 
announced in Parliament that "there is no portion of the two hemis* 
pheres with regard to which the policy of the two countries, however 
heretofore antagonistic, is not now in entire harmony." 

And now, sir, can we, in justice to ourselves, hesitate to act promptly 
upon this long cherished Cuban question ? Are we to await the final 
act of the tragedy progressing in Cuba, the emancipation of the negroes 
and the revival there of the scenes of St. Domingo ? 

Are we to fold our arms and permit England and France to erect 
Cuba into a free negro colony ? 

Sir, I am aware that men still live, — nay, some may be found even 
within these halls, who profess to regard the negro's ability to govern 
himself as a question yet to be solved, and who affect not to see this 
question in the light which historic truth has shed upon it. Let mc 
invite their attention to the present and prospective condition of th« 
British colonies. 

CONDITION OP BRITISH COLONIES. 

Great Britain has shown no little solicitude to ascertain the real 
state of things in her West India colonies. For this purpose, she 
appointed, in 1842, a select committee, consisting of some of the most 
prominent members of Parliament, with Lord Stanley at their head. 
In 1848, another committee was appointed by her, with Lord George 
Bentinck as its chairman, to inquire into the condition of Her Majesty's 



18 

East and West India possessions and the Manrities, and to consider 
whether any measures could be adopted for their relief. The report of 
both committees show, beyond all doubt, that unexampled distress 
existed in the Colonies. The report of 1848 declares : 

"That many estates in the British West India colonies have been already 
abandoned, that many more are in the course of abandonment, and that from thia 
cause a very serious diminution is to be apprehended in the total amount of produc- 
tion. That the first effect of this diminution will be an increase in the price of sugar, 
and the ultimate effect a greater extension to the growth of sugar in slave countries, 
and a greater impetus to slavery and the slave trade. " 

From the same report, we also learn that the prosperity of the Mauri- 
ties, no less than that of the West India Islands, had suffered a fearful 
blight, in consequence of the "glorious act of emancipation." 

A third commission was appointed in 1830, to inquire into the con- 
dition and prospects of British Guiana. Lord Stanley, in his second 
letter to Mr. Gladstone, the Secretary of the British Colonies, has 
furnished us with the following extracts from the report of the com- 
mittee r 

Of Guiana generally they say — "It would be but a melancholy task to dwell 
upon the misery and ruin which so alarming a change must have occasioned to the 
proprietary body ; but your commissioners feel themselves called upon to notice the 
effects which this wholesale abandonment of property has produced upon the colony 
at large. Where whole districts are fast relapsing into bush, and occasional patches 
of provisions around the huts of village settlers are all that remain to till of once 
flourishing estates, it is not to be wondered at that the most ordinary marks of civi- 
lization are rapidly disappearing, and that in many districts of the colony all travel- 
ling communication by land will soon become utterly impracticable." 

Of the Abary district — "Your commission find that the line of road is nearly im- 
passable, and that a long succession of formerly cultivated estates presents now a 
series of pestilent swamps, overrun with bush, and productive of malignant fevers? 

"Nor are matters," says Lord Stanley, "much better farther south." 

"Proceeding still lower down, your commissioners find that the public roads and 
bridges are in such a condition that a few estates still remaining on the upper west 
bank of Mahaica Creek are completely cut off, save in the very dry season ; and that 
with regard to the whole district, unless something be done very shortly, travelling 
by land will entirely cease. In such a state of things it cannot be wondered at that 
the herdsman has a formidable enemy to encounter in the Jaguar and other beasts of 
prey, and that the keeping of cattle is attended with considerable loss from the dep- 
redations committed by these animals. 

"It may be worth noticing," continues Lord Stanley, "that this district — now 
overrun with wild beasts of the forest — was formerly the very garden of the colony. 
The estates touched one another along the whole line of the road, leaving no interval 
of uncleared land. 

" The east coast, which is next mentioned by the commissioners, is better off. Pro- 
perties, once of immense value, had there been bought at nominal prices; and the 
one railroad of Guiana passing through that tract, a comparatively industrious pop- 
ulation — composed of former laborers ou the line — enabled the planters still to work 
these to some profit. Even of this favored spot, however, they report that it "feels 
most severely the want of continuous labor." 

The commissioners next visit the east bank of the Demerara river, 
thus described: 

"Proceeding up the east bank of the river Demerara, the generally prevailing fea- 
tures of ruin and distress are everywhere perceptible. Roads and bridges almost 
impassible are fearfully significant exponents of the condition of the plantations 
which they traverse ; and canal No. 3, once covered with plantains and coffee, pre- 
sents now a scene of almost total desolation." 

Crossing to the west side, they find prospects somewhat brighter : 
"a few estates" are still "keeping up a cultivation worthy of better 



19 

times." But this prosperous neigbborhoood is not extensive, and the 
next picture presented to our notice is less agreeable : 

"Ascending the river still higher, your commissioners learn that the district be- 
tween Hobaboe Creek and, 'Stricken Heuven ' contained in 1829, eight sugar and five 
coffee and plaintain estates, and now there nimain but three in siagar, and four par- 
tially cultivated with plaintains, by petty settlers; while the roads, with one or two 
exceptions, are in a state of utter abandonment. Here, as on the opposite bank of 
the river, hordes of squatters have located themselves, who avoid all communication 
with Europeans, and have seemingly given themselves up altogether to the rude 
pleasure of a completely savage life." 

The west coast of Demerara — the only part of the country which 
still remains unvisited — is described as showing only a diminution of 
fifty per cent, upon its produce of sugar ; and with this fact the evi- 
dence concludes as to one of the three sections into which the colony is 
divided. 

Again hear the report : 

"If the present state of the county of Demerara affords cause for deep apprehension, 
your commissioners find that Essequibo has retrograded to a still more alarming 
extent. In fact, unless a large and speedy supply of labor be obtained to cultivate 
the deserted fields of this once flourishing district, there is great reason to fear that it 
will relapse into total abandonn^.ent." 

Describing another portion of the colony, they say of one district: 

"Unless a fresh supply of labor be very soon obtained, there is every reason to 
fear that it will become completely abandoned.' Of a second, 'speedy immigration 
alone can save this island from total ruin.' ' The prostrate condition of this once 
beautiful part of the coast,' are the words which begin another paragraph, describing 
another tract of country. Of a fourth, ' the proprietors on this coast seem to be 
keeping up a hopeless struggle against approaching ruin.'" Again, "the once fa- 
mous Arabian coast, so long the boast of the colony, presents now but a mournful 
picture of departed prosperity. Here were formerly situated some of the finest es- 
tates in the country, and a large resident body of proprietors lived in the district, and 
freely expended their incomes on the spot whence they derived them." Once more, 
" the lower part of the coast, after passing Devonshire Castle, to the river Pomeroon, 
presents a scene of almost total desolation." 

"Berbice," says Lord Stanley, "has fared no better. Its rural population amounts 
to 18,000. Of these 12,000 have withdrawn from the estates, and mostly from the 
neighborhood of the white man, to enjoy a savage freedom of ignorance and idleness, 
beyond the reach of example and sometimes of control. But on the condition of the 
negro I shall dwell more at length hereafter ; at present it is the state of property with 
which I have to do. What are the districts which together form the country of Ber- 
bice? The Corentyne coast — the Canje creek — east and west banks of the Berbice 
river — and the w^est coast, where, however, cotton was formerly the chief article pro- 
duced. To each of these respectively the following passages, quoted in order, apply : 

" 'The abandoned plantations on this coast, which, if capital and labor could be 
procured, might easily be made very productive, are either wholly deserted, or else 
appropriated by hordes of squatters, who of course are unable to keep up their own 
expense the public roads and bridges; and consequently all communication by land 
between the Corentyne and New Amsterdam is nearly at an end. The roads are im- 
passable for horses or carriages, while for foot passengers they are extremely danger- 
ous. The number of villages in this deserted region must be upward of 2,500, and as 
the country abounds with fish and game, they have no diflficulty in making a subsist- 
ence. In fact, the Corentyne coast is fast relapsing into a state of nature.' 

" 'Canje Creek was formerly considered a flourishing district of the country, and 
numbered on its east bank 7 sugar and 3 coftee estates, and on its west bank 8 estates, 
of which two were in sugar and six in coffee, making a total of 18 plantations. The 
coffee cultivation has long since been entirely abandoned, and of the sugar estates but 
8 still now remain. They are suffering severely for the want of labor, and being sup- 
ported principally by African and Coolie immigrants, it is much to be feared that if 
the latter leave and claim their return passages to India, a great part of the district 
will become abandoned." 



20 

"Under present circumstances, so gloomy is the condition of affairs here, that the 
two gentlemen whom your commissioners have examined with respect to this district, 
both concur in predicting ' its slow but sure approximation to the condition in which 
civilized man first found it.' " 

"The negroes, who, in a state of slavery, were comfortable and prosperous beyond 
any peasantry in the world, and rapidly approaching the condition of the most opu- 
lent serfs of Europe, have beeii by the act of ema7icipation irretrievably consigned to a state 
of barbarism.^ ^ 

Surely it is no wonder that tlie hurrahing of the English people has 
ceased. 

"At the present moment," says the London Times for December 1st, 1852, "if there 
is one thing in the world that the British public do not like to talk about, or even to 
think about^ it is the condition of the race for whom this great effort was made." 

Not SO with the abolitionists of this country. They still keep up the 
annual celebration of that great event, the act of emancipation, by which, 
in the language of one of their number, more than half a million of hu- 
man beings were " turned from brutes into freemen." 

I will not delay to show the condition of Jamaica and other colonies. 
The same results of negro self-government, beggary and vice, every where 
exist. 

And here let me say to the Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Doolittle,] 
whom I see in his seat, and to whose novel plan of surrendering the Tropics 
exclusively to the negroes I listened, that if he can show me a square mile 
of earth on this Grlobe which exhibits the negro's ability to govern himself 
and prosper, I may confess that his notion has some foundation at least. 
Why, sir, I do not know in what city or town the Hon. Senator resides, — 
but I will undertake to say that if any negroes are there, it has its negro 
quarter, — the filthiest and the most shunned in all the city, and that their 
progress, stimulated as it must be by false philanthropy, has never car- 
ried them beyond the menial employments in which they are usually found. 

Emancipation, sir, has been a total, a wretched failure; and it has illus- 
trated a singular feature of the negro race, viz : that just as there are 
certain grains and fruits which the industry of man has redeemed by care- 
ful culture from their original and savage nature, — from some wild grass 
or litter nut, which, if withdrawn from his care, will relapse back to their 
original type, — just so does the African in these colonies when left to him- 
self, relapse back, stage by stage to the original barbarism of his fathers. 

CUBANS. 

It is not my purpose to review the grounds occupied by the opponents of 
this bill at this time, but there is one objection taken, which, considering 
the time and place in which it is made, is too remarkable to pass over. 

It is said that the Cubans are Catholics, and therefore averse to, and 
unfitted for, liberty; and that the Catholic church is hostile to freedom. 
An assertion so irreconcilable with the truth of history scarcely merits a 
serious answer ; but, sir, if this charge shall ever be made under circum- 
stances requiring a response, heaven grant that the Church may have the 
privilege of confronting her enemies here before the freest and greatest 
forum upon the earth. As one of her humblest followers, and a most in- 
different one, I regret to say, perhaps the only one of this body, I stand 
always ready in her defence, — but, sir, she needs no defence. There she 
stands, with the historic truth and traditionary lore of eighteen centuries 
clustering around her head, her annals illustrated and adorned by the 
proudest names and monuments of earth ; her teachings sublime and uni- 
versal, her morning sacrifices to the ever-living God welcoming the sun in 



21 

his eoming, and lier vesper bells cheering his departure throughout the 
bounds of earth. 

Sir, let this charge be seriously made, and its refutation will be found in 
every forum and upon every field where freedom has been lost or won. 

I am unauthorized, sir, to express upon this subject any opinions but my 
own ; but in my judgment, the enlightened Catholics of the world to-day 
would regard the transfer of Cuba to this country as a measure well cal- 
culated to advance the interests of the church. 

It is also alleged that the Cubans are ignorant, that they are satisfied 
with Spanish dominion, and desire no change. Sir, I profess to know 
something of the Cubans, and I feel bound to remind those gentlemen who 
have dealt here in wholesale abuse, and in some inuendos against their 
indisposition to liberty, against their incapacity for self-government, against 
their ignorance and superstition, that in a population of about six hundred 
thousand whites they sustain one daily journal, at least, having nine thou- 
sand daily circulation, while in the mother country there is not a single 
paper that has two thousand, and that daily journal, about the size of our 
Journal of Commerce, is twice the size of any in Spain. 

Let me say that, deprived of every office of honor, trust and profit, not 
permitted to enter the army or navy, not permitted to enjoy any of the 
benefices of the church, not permitted to leave the island, or return, with- 
out permission, or bear arms, or enter upon a trade, or transfer a residence, 
without permission ; crushed by law, and regarded by habit as an inferior 
race, they have yet speedily adopted many of our mechanical contrivances, 
they have shown the most remarkable capacity for managing their own af- 
fairs, in the administration of the island, as its unrivalled prosperous com- 
mercial and agricultural condition to-day manifest, and they are the plant- 
ers and mechanics of Cuba, while the old Spaniards are the governing 
class. 

They have sought the United States upon every occasion : and those 
that you have seen here are fair specimens of the Cubans. In private 
virtues I do not believe they will compare unfavorably with our own peo- 
ple. The spirit of hospitality rests upon every Creole mansion in Cuba. 
Most especially does it to an American. The miserable pretense has been 
set up, and sometimes urged here, that this people, crushed and down- 
trodden as they are, do not desire a change of government. It is the 
most preposterous presumption on earth, that a people thus crushed, liv- 
ing almost within hearinof of our own bells which celebrate the anniversa- 
ries of our independence, coming to our country, educated m our public 
schools, carrying back with them and spreading the principles of civil and 
religious freedom, should tamely submit to the rod if they could possibly 
avoid it. 

Why, sir, these people, within my own recollection, have, on five dif- 
ferent occasions, organized a well directed revolution ; and the existence 
and maintenance of an army of trained soldiers, usually twenty-five thou- 
sand men, never less than seventeen thousand, and numbering with the 
militia and partidos, twenty-five thousand at all times, besides the govern- 
ment spies, — the very existence of this force shows how much Spain fears 
the spirit of the people. But for the maintenance of a standing army, a 
great deal larger than this country ever had, or I hope ever will maintain 
for years, Cuba would have been free by the exertions of her own sods long 
ago^ On every occasion when manhood and courage could be shown, the 
people of Cuba have not been backward. But the dawn of that glorious 



22 

morn which is yet to rise upon Cuba is already struggling up to our vision. 
The influence of young Cuba, of a generation educated under free institu- 
tions, is beginning to be felt; and Heaven grant that the soil which has been 
moistened by the blood of the Ageuros, of Lopez, and of Crittenden, may 
soon cease to afford a resting-place for the oppressor. In that little melan- 
choly affair of her chosen liberator, Lopez, there was one company of 
forty-three men, commanded by a young Cuban of Cardenas, some of 
whom went from our shores under my own eyes, some of tliem were my 
own friends — they appealed to me whether to go or not; I told them it 
was going to absolute, certain destruction. But they left their wives, 
their children, their property, nay, they would not take a suit of clothes 
with them, because they would have to go back to their houses to pack 
them up. They elected cheerfully to die, and, they said to me, they 
would be ashamed to look their countrymen in the face, if they could re- 
main away when there was an expedition on foot to free the Island of 
Cuba; and I believe, today, they but expressed the honest conviction of 
every Cuban heart in the island. I believe there is not a Creole in the 
island who would not raise his hand for freedom ; and if the island is to 
be bought, they are ready to assist to raise the money if necessary. Gen- 
tlemen here have not entered into a calculation of the fund that may be 
raised on the Island of Cuba, either by the sale of her public property, 
the acquisition of her public lands, or the voluntary subscription of her 
own people. 

But, sir, they are habitually crushed by the despotic will of a Captain 
General at the point of the bayonet — a man who is not unfrequently sent 
to Cuba because he has become dangerous at home. In illustration of 
this, I need go no further back than the present reigning Viceroy. All 
men who have given any attention to the affairs of Spain, will recollect 
that this same General Concha*Vevolted against his Royal Sovereign in 
Gallicia. They remember very well that he turned over to the Govern- 
ment, and was sent back to murder and butcher his old companions whom 
he had assisted in rebellion. They remember that, after he returned from 
the Island of Cuba in 1853 as Captain General, he again raised the stand- 
ard of revolt against his Queen to depose her, and made his pronuncia- 
mento in the streets of Madrid; that he fled, was pursued, declared a 
traitor, and condemned to death ; but with the tortuous ways of Spanish 
diplomacy and General Concha's own matchless character and ability for 
intrigue, he was recalled from France and sent to Cuba, and de^-larcd a 
loyal citizen to govern over that island ; and when he got there, in per- 
fect keeping with his character, he seized the very friend who had stood 
by him in his adversity, and who, it was supposed, was possessed of pa- 
pers which might compromise him, and he commanded the judges to put 
that friend to death, because he said he had in his possession sufficient 
evidence to convict him of treason. Under his dictation, but fortunately 
spreading the order upon their records, they did condemn him to death ; 
and Pinto was garroted under his orders. 

Such men as these are sent to the Island of Cuba with a nominal sal- 
ary of $50,000,000 a year, but a despotic power to crush out of the peo- 
ple any amount of money they may think proper. But, in spite of all 
this, the people of Cuba to-day present a degree of commercial and agri- 
cultural prosperity that is hardly to be seen in any similar latitude upon 
the face of the globe. 

The slave trade is encouraged by Spain in direct opposition to the Cre- 



23 

ole sentiment of the island, and in no wise can they be held responsible 
for it. 

Mr. BRODERICK. Will the Senator from Florida give way for a 
motion to adjourn ? It is now quarter past six. He can go on to-morrow. 

Mr. MALLOIiY. I give way. 
• Mr. brown. I ask the Senator from California to suspend his mo- 
tion for a moment. Before the conclusion of this question, which the 
Senator from Louisiana has given us notice he means to press to-morrow 
evening, I shall desire to say a word, and that word I desire to say to the 
northern Democracy. 

I say distinctly 1 desire to say it to them, and whenever, during to- 
morrow, I shall have an opportunity of speaking, I wish their presence, 
because what I have to say I design for them especially and separately. 

Mr. KENNEDY. If the vote is to be pressed to-morrow evening 

Several Senators. "No." "No." 

Mr. BRODERICK. It cannot be pressed then. 

Mr. KENNEDY. I hope not. I desire to be heard on this question. 
I am prepared to go on to-night or to speak to-morrow. 

Several Senators. We will hear you to-morrow. 

Mr. FESSENDEN. You may depend upon it the vote will not be 
taken to-morrow night. 

Mr. BRODERICK. I renew my motion to adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to, and the Senate adjourned. 

Friday, February 25. 

Mr. MALLORY. Mr. President.— When I had the honor of last 
addressing the Senate on this bill, I took the broad ground which has 
been assumed by every statesman of our country who has ever had this 
question under consideration, that the Island of Cuba is essential to the 
general welfare of the United States and to its military defences ; I en- 
deavored to show its remarkable geographical position in a strategic mili- 
tary point of view. I further endeavored to show why it was that the 
statesmen of our country, from Mr. Jefferson to the present day, includ- 
ing all complexions of political parties, Whigs as well as Democrats, have 
uniformly used the language that the United States would not seek to 
disturb Spain in the possession of the island. It was when Spain was 
comparatively, as compared with the rest of the powers of Europe, a 
strong nation, and we were relatively weak. It was said with the under- 
standing that Spain could maintain her status in Cuba, and would govern 
it in such a manner as to be compatible with our interests. Who sup- 
poses for a moment that any of these leading men, most especially Mr. 
Calhoun, would have used such language if the alternative of the Afri- y 
canization of Cuba had been submitted to him? If it had been seen in / 
1845 that Spain was taking measures to turn the slave population of Cuba / 
free, and to reduce it to the condition of Jamaica or San Domingo, does f 
any man suppose that Mr. Calhoun would not have been in favor of 
adopting immediate measures for the acquisition of Cuba, if necessary in 
the manner he pointed out, by the alternative of arms ? Yes, sir, he 
would have felt then as many of us do now, that it is our duty openly 
and in the face of the world to take Cuba and talk about it afterwards. 

In this connection also I endeavored to show the weakness of Spain 
and her inability to maintain her neutrality in the event of any difficulty 



24 

between her and any of the European powers^ and I will do it more fully 
to-day. It is manifest that in a war between ourselves and Great Britain 
or France, it would be impossible for Spain to pretend to neutrality; or 
if she did, she would have but to open her ports to both belligerents alike, 
and to offer the same facilities to ourselves and to our enemy, to en- 
sure to the enemy the greatest possible advantages and to us the ^greatest 
possible detriment; and if it did not, experience has taught us that 
Britain, as an enemy, has never regarded the rights of neutrals. In our 
own brief naval career in the last war, we saw that at Valparaiso she at- 
tacked our fleet when lying under the guns of a neutral port, and she did 
the same at Fayal, and if we wanted further assurance we might take her 
conduct at Copenhagen, It is fallacious to proceed on the ground that 
we can recognize longer a continuation of Spain's authority over Cuba on 
the presumption that she can if she would govern it in a manner compat- 
ible with our interests in the event of difficulty. In the event of war she 
could not so govern it, and in peace as we are now she is so governing 
it as to show the very worst possible aspect to our interests. 

GOVERNMENT OF CUBA. 

Mr. President, Spain has a written constitution, and under its pro- 
visions life, liberty and property find general security. In her national 
assembly, or Cortes, the people, no less than the State and the Church, 
are represented ; but from the provisions of this constitution, and from 
the Cortes also, unhappy Cuba is excluded. She sent her deputies there 
in 1837; but they were ignorainiously excluded. They published an in- 
dignant remonstrance to the Spanish nation ; but it had no effect, and 
Cuba was turned over to the tender mercies of royal ordinances and special 
edicts. Governed by a viceroy, under the title of Captain General, who 
is clothed with all the powers usually devolved on the commander of a 
besieged city ; who exercises power over life, liberty and property ; who, 
trained in the camp, and at the head of an army, recognizing no divided 
authority, enforces a despotic will at the point of the bayonet ; who, not 
unfrequently found a traitor or a troublesome character in his own coun- 
try, is sent to Cuba to govern her people, to burnish up his own reputa- 
tion, and recruit his fortunes ; Cuba stands out to-day as the most appal- 
ling instance of mis-government on the face of the earth — a despotism to 
which the misrule of Japan is absolute freedom. I will say to my friend 
from Vermont, who deprecated any allusion to the Government of Cuba, 
that I am surprised at him. I am surprised that, in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, here in the American Senate, we should not be permitted to speak 
of a despotism within almost hearing distance of our own shores, which 
has existed under our own eyes, to which our citizens are compelled to 
submit, and which we have yet made no effort to obviate. The 
Senator says they are under no compulsion to go there. We have a 
treaty of amity and commerce with Spain, of 1793, under which our 
people go there, and they go there with the understanding that they are 
entitled to all the rights, and subject to the laws and usages of Spanish 
citizens. To an American the shield of the law means something ; it 
conveys, at least, the idea of some protection ; but let me tell him that in 
Cuba, where the supreme power is the will of- the Captain General, no 
such protection is found. A very intelligent English traveler, (Phillips,) 
who cannot be supposed to be biased, says of the Government of Cuba : 



25 

"The Government of Cuba, though, as already said, similar to that of the parent 
State, is much more oppressive. It is a kind of military despotism, or, rather, an 
oligarchy, in which the love of dominion is carried to a species of fanaticism, and de- 
graded into meanness. As nothing is too large for its ambition, so nothing is too 
small for its cupidity. Its appetite is insatiable, and its digestion omniverous. There 
are no limits to its rapacity. Both the legislative, judicial, and executive power are 
almost entirely in the hands of the Governor. Indeed, the power with which he is 
invested is almost equal in extent to that granted to governors of besieged towns. 
Even the higher classes may be said to have no civil rights ; neither those of personal 
liberty, personal security, nor personal property ; immunities declared by Blackstone 
as the inalienable birthright of every man. 

" The taxation is said to exceed in variety and extent that of any taxation imposed 
by any Government in any country of its size upon earth, viz : Upwards of twenty 
million dollars collected by the order and for the uses of the Spanish Government 
alone, independently of those appropriated to the wants of the country itself, or for 
social purposes. 

'' The Creole population are excluded from almost all influential and lucrative offices 
and positions. The judges and most of the officials are from Spain; and, being with- 
out salaries, like so many vultures they prey upon the unprotected within their juris- 
diction. There are no means, dishonest, tyrannical, or cruel, which the Spanish 
authorities have left untried in their apparent endeavors to ruin the colony. Bribery 
and corruption seem to be recognized as necessary methods of this Government." 

The natural fruits of such a despotism are visible to every eye in Cuba ; 
they are making themselves manifest everywhere, and every department 
of her Government exhibits, habitually, in all its intercourse with our 
citizens, a degree of corruption that can hardly be imagined — a corruption 
that extends from the highest officer to the lowest, from the Captain Gen- 
eral, who receives his bribe in ounces for violating the faith of his country, 
for violating her treaty obligations, for admitting slaves knowingly, down 
to the humble tide-waiter, who receives his bribe in dollars for making a 
false custom-house return. All is corruption, all is bribery in their offi- 
cials, and integrity is the exception to the rule. 

OUR COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH CUBA. 

I will now briefly review our commercial relations with Cuba, so far as^ 
they bear upon the question of annexation, for I hold that if we had in this 
respect pursued a wise policy, the acquisition of the island would have been 
an easy matter to-day. 

But if our worst enemies had devised some cunning scheme for alien- 
ating the Cubans and driving their trade from our ports, they could not 
have performed the task better than we have done it for ourselves. 

As Cuba's nearest neighbors, and as the cheapest producers of all the 
staples of life, we ought naturally to engross a very large share of her 
trade; and such would be the natural result, did we permit Cuban vessels 
to purchase in our ports. But I will undertake to say that if our ports, 
from Maine to Texas, were examined to-day, you would find no Spanish 
vessel in them bound to Cuba; and I remember that the last time, some 
four years ago, I examined this subject, our exports to Cuba in Spanish 
bottoms amounted to twelve thousand dollars, while those from Great 
Britain reached nearly three millions. Cuba sells to the United States 
double the value of what she receives in products, but under no wise system 
could this possibly exist. For example, if our imports from Cuba this year 
shall be $15,000,000, our exports in value will be seven and a-half mil- 
lions, leaving us her debtor seven and a-half millions — a debt which we 
do not pay directly to Cuba, but which we pay through exchange on Eng- 
land and France to Spain, to equalize her balance against Cuba. Cuba 






26 

sells to England either directly or through " Cowes and a market" as much 
as she receives, and the commerce between them is about equal. Spain 
takes $3,600,000 of Cuban products, and she sells to Cuba $9,00U,U00, 
or nearly three times as much; but of this $3,600,000 much is not con- 
sumed in Spain, but in the ports of the Levant and the Adriatic, going 
first to Cadiz and Barcelona. France sells to Cuba two and a-half millions 
and Cuba sells to France two millions; or, if the value of Cuban produce 
which goes through Spain into France be considered, their trade is about 
equal. Under the x\merican flag, Cuba would receive from us sixteen- 
twentieths of all the articles she now imports from France and England, 
and to illustrate the commercial change which her incorporation into the 
American Union would work, let us look alone at the article of flour. 

Cuba consumes 300,000 barrels of flour per annum, only 9,000 of which 
are American, and I estimate her population at 1,600,000, a grade higher 
than it has been placed on this floor. I have reason to believe this to be 
correct. On Spanish flour the duty is $2.50 per barrel, and on American 
it is $10.81 per barrel, a discrimination of $8.31 or more than the first 
cost of the article against us ; and the consequence of this enormous pro- 
tection to Spanish flour has been to confine its use mainly to the wealthy 
classes. Were flour admitted free, they would consume three-fourths of a 
barrel each per annum, or 1,200,000 barrels of American flour, which 
would sell in Cuba at $5 per barrel for $6,000,000 instead of the $45,000 
worth of flour we now sell them. Lying, as Cuba does, at the very doors 
of the flour and rice market, these articles would be carried there in the 
small Spanish vessels, which would make short voyages and supply the 
market upon a sudden demand at all the ports of Cuba. 

When the Lidependence of her American Colonies was acknowledged 
by Spain, and privateering under the Columbian and Mexican flags ceased, 
Spain had not a ton of commercial shi]3ping upon the ocean. Her naval 
power was insignificant, and she at once adopted a policy to create a school 
for seamen, and to build up her navy; and her first measure was to dis- 
criminate, in levying duties upon ships and merchandize, in favor of her 
own vessels against those of all the world. 

Mr. Van Ness, being then our Minister at the Court of Madrid, was 
directed to remonstrate against this system. Spain refused to recede, and 
upon the petition of certain shipping interests. Congress adopted the suici- 
dal policy of retaliatory measures — measures which struck a heavy blow 
at the agricultural and commercial interests of the country. 

With the view of coercing Spain into the abandonment of her policy, 
we passed the two acts of 1832 and 1834, levying discriminating duties 
on Spanish vessels; and these acts, directed against the trade of Cuba and 
Porto Rico, have the following eSect: 

A Spanish vessel takes on board at New York, or any other American 
port, a thousand barrels of flour, and goes to the Custom House to clear. 
If she be destined to any other place in the world than Cuba or Porto 
Rico, she is compelled to give a bond in double the value of vessel and 
cargo, that no part of it shall be landed at either of these islands. Here, 
at once, is a discrimination (not designed by the law,) which efiectually 
throws the Spanish vessel out of the freighting business, for a commission 
has to be paid to the merchant for giving the bond ; and from this vexa- 
tious expense all other flags are free. f 

But if the vessel be destined for Cuba or Porto Bico, then the collector 



27 

demands the payment of a sum of money equal to the discriminating duty 
chargeable in Cuba upon the same cargo as between a Spanish and an 
American vessel. 

If, for example, this cargo of flour landed in Cuba from a Spanish ves- 
sel would pay seven dollars per barrel duty, and from an American ten 
dollars, — then upon every barrel at New York the collector would charge 
the Spanish vessel three dollars, — and call this a tonnage duty. 

A more restrictive measure, or one better calculated to legislate Cuban 
trade from us, could not have been devised : and this explains the enor- 
mous balance of trade against us. 

No nation but ourselves pursued this course, and England and France 
have largely increased their Cuban trade in consequence. 

To show how this has ever been regarded by the Cubans, I will request 
the Clerk to read the following portion of the Report upon the trade of 
Cuba, made to the Ctiptain Greneral in 1844, and which I have translated 
•for the purpose : 

"To show the injustice of the measure, (alluding to the Act of 1834,) let us com- 
pare the imports of the two countries, (Cuba and the United States.) Our vessels 
coming from the United States pay, on the value of their cargoes, from seventeen and 
one-fourth to twenty-one and one-fourth per cent., and those of the Americans with 
same cargoes, from twenty-four and one-fourth to thirty and one-fourth per cent.; 
the difference between the two is from seven to nine per cent., giving a mean differ- 
ence of eight per cent." — (p. 283.) 

'The Government of the United States has the indisputable right to exercise equal 
discrimination upon our vessels to protect theirs and the products of their country, as 
have all other nations; but has it done so by the enactment of this law ? No ! May 
it please your Excellency, the American Government has said that, in addition to the 
contributions common to other vessels, those of Spain engaged in the trade of Cuba 
and Porto Rico shall pay an additional duty equal to the difference imposed on these 
islands between national and American vessels ; that is to say, if foreign vessels pay 
in the United States twenty per cent, more than American vessels, those of the islands 
must pay a differential duty of twenty-eight per cent., a duty which augments just in 
proportion as we decrease the burdens imposed on our vessels, though we do not in- 
crease those of the American vessels !" — (pages 283-4.) 

"In other words, may it please your Excellency, it is equivalent to the declaration of 
the American Government to that of his xMajesty. In vain you think to protect your 
shipping, even at the cost of their public revenue; because just so much as you 
lighten your burdens upon it, just so much will we augment ours upon it ! Such a 
violation of the rights of nations can hardly be conceived on the part of a great and 
literal Government, and still less that it should be tolerated by Spain — [Ibid.) 

"This violation is more flagrant and manifest as it respects exportations . As to im- 
portations,, it is very well to levy equal (not different) duties upon cargoes imported 
into botii nations reciprocally, because the productions of the country thus have pro- 
tection ; but with respect to importatioy^s, what motive can the Government of the 
United States have to levy this differential duty if it be not the extinction of our ship- 
ping, even at the cost of her own productions? — {Ibid.) 

■ "Thus, then, if to-morrow our Government shall deem it right to make a sacrifice 
of all parts of the imposts upon our marine which i't now pays, have strangers the 
right to receive the same in their ports ? Evidently no, your Excellency ! all they 
can rightfully do is to imitate the Government of Spain, and to protect their marine 
at the cost of the same sacrifice. But to augment the duties on our vessels in 
proportion as we decrease them, Avhen we do not increase those upon American ves- 
sels, and to convert this sacrifice made by the Spanish Government into a means for 
its destruction, is what has never been pretended to by any other nation, and cannot 
be tolerated by Spain without disgrace." 

No complaint was ever more just and, so far as we have gone, we have 
recognized its justice. Two Committees of this body and two Secretaries 
of the Treasury, Mr. Walker and Mr. Corwin, have recommended the 
repeal of these laws in elaborate reports. 



28 

PURCHASE OF CUBA. 

I venture the opinion, sir, that we can purchase Cuba only by combin- 
ing with a money consideration certain commercial concessions and advan- 
tages to Spain. The commercial spirit of Spain, fostered by her Cuban 
trade, and in the hands principally of the active, energetic people of Cat- ■ 
alonia, — the Yankees of Spain, as they are called, — is steadily advancing. 

Spain, in her own tonnage, sends her surplus flour, wines, oils, fruits, 
&c., &c,, to Cuba, to the value of nine millions of dollars, and charges 
imports on them there, thus concentrating the interests of her pro- 
ducing classes in her retention of this trade. Now the people of Spain 
know well that whatever sum of money might be paid for Cuba, would be 
used or squandered by the Government or the Court, the most corrupt in 
Europe, and that they would derive but little benefit from it commensur- 
ate with the loss of Cuba. They know that for the last fifty years Spain 
has witnessed but a succession of revolutions, and that everj'^ ministry 
ejected from office left an empty treasury to its successors, to be replen- 
ished by extra taxes, until the national debt to-day amounts to over seven 
hundred millions of pounds sterling. 

The vice and rapacity of ministers, and the corruptions of her Court, 
however, have not changed the Spanish people. They are the same, — 
honest, brave and true, — that they were in Spain's palmiest days, retain- 
ing their primitive virtues with their primitive customs ; and in riding 
through the roads and beneath the old chesnuts of La Mancha to-day, you 
will encounter pretty much the same groups of peasantry, dressed in the 
same style, inviting you with the same salutations to partake with them of 
the same style of breakfast with which they greeted our old friends^ Don 
Quixote and Sancho. 

Connect the offer of money with a right of Spain to preserve her home 
trade with Cuba for a period, — say forty years, — and it would carry great 
weight. There would then be apparently no interruption to her com- 
merce by the transfer, and the industrial interests ot Spain would sustain 
no sudden sensation. Nor would her oils, wines or fruits compete with 
any agricultural interests of ours ; and moreover, her carrying trade, 
which is her principal for her naval seamen, would not be destroyed. 

Spain needs money, — she has long been on the verge of national bank- 
ruptcy. Lord George Bentick, speaking for the British holders of Spanish 
bonds in 1846, in Parliament, used the following lano^uafj-e : 

"The debt due from Spain to British holders amounts to about £46,000,000, the in- 
terest on which, at 3^- per cent., is £1,610,000; and this sum deducted from the total 
revenue of Cuba and Forto Rico alone, would leave a surplus income to Spain from 
those sources of £652,500. The annual value of the produce of the island of Cuba is 
about £9.300,000, whilst the revenue of Havana alone increased m twelve 3'ears, viz : 
from 1815 to 1827, from 1,726,963 dollars to 4,383,262 dollars. Here, then, is ivealth 
to repay the whole debt due by Spain to British bond-holders. Noio, as the whole Spaiiish 
navy only amounts to three ships of the line^ five frigates, and twenty sloops, brigs and 
smaller vessels of war, so far as the jjrudence of the case goes, I think the most timid 3Iin- 
ister need not be under any apprehension that, ivhatever course was taken, there would be 
any very effective resistance on the part of Spain. I think, then, I have shown that there 
is capability on the part of Spain, and that it only requires the application of an ener- 
getic system on the part of the noble Lord to show her the necessity of placing herself 
in a position to pay her debts." 

''But in what manner are the revenues of Spain wasted? Why, I find that the 
royal household, one of the most corrupt and profligate in Europe, costs £435,000 a 
year, being upwards of £140,000 a year more than the Queen of England receives." — 
(Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, third series, vol. xciii.) 



29 

Spain's power to retain cuba. 

It must be admitted that in a war between Spain and any of the great 
powers of Europe, Cuba would be the coveted prize and would fall 
from her grasp. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE. If the honorable Senator from Florida will 
allow me for a single moment, as he is passing on to another branch of 
the discussion, I desire to read a single extract, in relation to the con- 
dition of the Liberian settlement on the coast of Africa. 

Mr. MALLORY. I would rather that the Senator would introduce 
that when he makes his own remarks. 

Mr. DOOLITTLE. Of course I do not desire to interrupt the 
honorable Senator. 

Mr. MALLORY. Spain's future power is to be judged by her 
past condition and present weakness ;— and I will briefly sketch her 
troubled existence for the last forty-five years. 

In 1814, on the fall of N'apoleon, that wretched and imbecile creature, 
Ferdinand the Seventh, returned from his French prison to Madrid, 
and was once again a king ; — and, surrounding himself with the adhe- 
rents of absolutism, he immediately proceeded to establish a despotic 
government, and did so. This lasted about three years, the times varied 
by insurrections and anarchy. The glorious patriot Riego then raised 
the standard of revolt successfully, overthrew the government, pro- 
claimed the constitution of 1812, under which the Cortes was convened, 
and liberal principles again declared. 

During the next three years, varied as before by revolts and confusion, 
the King played falsely alike with friends and foes until a French army 
interfered and restored the Bourbon monarchy. Then followed military 
commissions and trials, held all over Spain, many of the noblest men 
of the country were executed, and Ferdinand crowned his perfidies and 
sunk his memory to eternal degradation by authorizing the execution 
of Riego. 

The monarchy however had no peace; insurrections, guerrilla parties, 
the commencement of the Carlist war and the corruptions of the Court, 
reduced the country to beggary and bankruptcy, which continued down 
to the death of Ferdinand in 1833, when, by his abolition of the Salic 
law and the elevation of Isabel to the throne, another intestine war of 
seven years followed. The adherents of Don Carlos, under the title of 
Charles the Fifth, and those of the good and virtuous queen mother 
Christina, took the field, and hostile camps covered the country. 

In 1834 a new constitution was proclaimed, inaugurated by pronun- 
ciamentos and revolts at Madrid, Malaga and Saragossa. 

The Carlist war continued down to 1840, when the Duke of Victoria 
made his way to the head of public affairs. 

In 1843 he in turn was driven from power, Narvaes took his post, 
and in 1845 a new constitution was proclaimed. 

In 1854 Concha and O'Donnell raised the standard of revolt, the 
battle of Yivalcaro was fought, the streets of Madrid were barricaded, 
the houses of members were sacked, Christina was banished, anarchy 
reigned throughout the capital, and in fact over the whole country. 

Espartcro then took control of the Government and a Jiew constitu- 
tion was proclaimed in 1855. Espartero and O'Donnell divided 



80 

power, the former giving way in 1856, leaving O'Donnell at the head of 
affairs, when another constitution was established. 

Such have been the last forty-two years of Spain's career ; and further 
to exhibit the improbability of her retaining Cuba much longer, let U3 
glance at the dominion she has parted with, as furnished by one of her 
own writers : 

"In 1565 we gave up the Isle of Malta to the order of St. John. In 1620 the 
Lower Navarre and Bearne was yielded to France; and in lo'IO the Eousselon. 
In 1640 we lostPortugal and her colonies. In 1648 we recognized the sovereignty of 
the Netherlands. In 1626 the English wrested the Barbadoes from iis; iu 16.55 
Jamaica; in 1704 Gibraltar; in 1718 the Luccas; in 1759 Dominica; and in 1797 
Trinidad. In Ihe 17th century France took possession of Martinico, New Grenada, 
Gandaloupe, and the half of the Isle of San Domingo; and in 1800 Louisiana. In the 
18th century we yielded up Sardinia to the Duke of Savoy, and to Morocco our rights 
of Mazakjuivir and Oran. We ceded Parma, Placencia, and Lucca, with other domi- 
nions in the north of Italy, to Princes of the House of Bourbon , and in 1759 Naples 
and Sicily were emancii)ated from Spanish Government. In 1819 we sold Florida to 
the United States; in 1821 we lost our half of the Isle of San Domingo; and befpre 
1825 all the vast continent which our glorious ancestors had acquired waslost to us 
forever. Of all this immense power we have, as a remembrance of the past, the isles 
of Cuba and Puerto Pvico, the distant Philippines, and our African possessions alone." 

Sir, when I reflect upon the geographical position of Cuba, upon its 
command of our commerce, upon its iron despotism, upon the claims of 
her people upon us, upon its fertility and resources, but, above all, upon 
the repeated provocations which Spain has given us, I am reminded of 
the reply of Lord Clife, when called before the Parliamentary commit- 
tee to answer for his alleged spoliation of the Indian Princes : *' By 
heaven, gentlemen, when I reflect upon the temptation, I am astounded 
at my own moderation." 

But our opponents say, what want we of more territory ? Have we 
not enough ? And they quote, amongst other opinions, those of Mr, 
Webster upon this point : 

"I have always wished," said Mr. "Webster in his speech on the admission of Texas, 
in 1845, " that this country should exhibit to the nations of the earth the example 
of a great, rich, and powerful republic, Avhich is not possessed by a spirit of aggran- 
dizement." "My opinion has been," said he, again, in his great speech of 7th March, 
1850, " that we have territory enough, and that we should follow the Spartan maxim, 
'Improve and adorn what you have. Seek no further.'" 

Something like this fell from my friend from "Vermont. " Improve 
and adorn what you have. Seek no further." Sir, it has been the cry 
from the formation of the Government. It was the cry when we 
acquired Louisiana, Florida, California, and New Mexico ; but it has 
ever been the cry of minorities unsupported by power, minorities bat- 
tling against majorities on party issues ; — and I much doubt if Mr. 
Webster would have ever held such language as President of the United 
States. 

The condition of nations is the condition of the individuals composing 
them. Tell any of these distinguished men who surround me here, 
" pause in your career, make no further advance up the steep hill of 
fame, improve and adorn what you have !" Tell the ambitious student, 
with all his university honors clustering around his head, "rest from 
your labors, cease your pursuit of knowledge, stay the ambitious beat- 
ings of your heart, improve and adorn what you have !" Tell the 
geaman fresh from the deck of victory to sheathe his sword and lie 
upon his oars — and even while they listen, they turn off each to pursue 
bis own particular career. 



81 

Alexander, at the liei<2:ht of his military glory, sighed for new worlds 
to conquer ; and Sir Isaac Newton, when complimented upon his 
sublime labors, replied that he felt that like a little child he had but 
wandered on the shore, occasionally finding a shell or a pebble more 
lovely than the rest, while the great ocean of truth lay unfexplored 
before hira. 

No, Mr. President, it is no more possible f)r this country to pause in 
its career than it is for the free and untramelled eagle to cease to soar. 
The blood in our veins and the institutions we have adopted equally 
impel us onward. Every homestead and hamlet of New England 
refutes this stand-still policy ; for each and every one retains the 
cherished memory of a son, a brother, or a father,' who, surmounting 
every obstacle, has wandered into distant lands to carve out a home, 
there to transplant a loved mother, wife or sister ; there to win name and 
fame, and come back at some distant day, perhaps to old Connecticut, a 
proud and honored son, — perhaps to Congress, to tell of the hopes of his 
constituents. 

At our present rate of progress this vast continent, every inch of it, 
must soon be ours. Since we turned England adrift from us we have 
added a new sovereignty and three hundred thousand people to the con- 
federacy nearly every four years. It was but as yesterda}^ sir, that a 
handful of hardy pioneers, with the axe and the rifle, crossed the moun- 
tains and settled in Oregon ; and last week, while our Chairman of 
Finance was upon the floor, lucidly explaining the monetary condition 
of the country, the President's messenger was announced, and said, 
" The President of the United States has signed a bill admitting Oregon 
into the Union." Not another word was said, — the Chairman proceeded 
with his remarks, and Oregon, with her ninety-seven thousand people, 
her seventy thousand square miles, her two hundred miles of seaboard, 
and the agricultural and mineral resources of a great empire — took her 
place, the thirty-third in our magic circle of stars, whose union and 
harmony are never broken by additions. 

I am sensible that I have detained the Senate longer than I should 
have done, and I will close in a very few minutes. I desire to advert to 
what has been said in relation to the manner in which this offer may 
be received by Spain. I believe that from 1825, if we had had an agent 
in Spain ready to make a commercial treaty securing to her the carry- 
ing trade between Spain and Cuba to a certain extent, or its equal enjoy- 
ment with ourselves ; and the admission of her oils and wines into Cuba 
upon their present terms, and at the same time paying a sum of money 
down to a ministry, we could have had Cuba on several occasions. . 

But, sir, I am asked what I would do if Spain should reject all reason- 
able terms ? I can hardly suppose such a contingency, sir, but I would 
be prepared to meet it. 

I would in such case act openly and fairly with her, and look directly 
at the contingency of taking Cuba and talking about it afterwards, as 
Frederick did with Silesia. 

I would remind her that for her hold upon Cuba to-day she is not 
only indebted to our neutrality laws, rigidly enforced — to our forbear- 
ance, but to our active assistance; — forbearance and assistance which 
we can no longer, in justice to ourselves, extend. I would remonstrate 
with her upon the tendency, so perilous to us, of her Cuban policy. I 



f 

32 / ' 

would tell her that she has established a government there which is an 
nicer upon the civilization of the nineteenth century — an ulcer doubly 
offensive because of its proximity to our shores; a government whose 
daily precept and practise are at war with every principle of civil and 
religious freedom ;■ — you have fired u])on our vessels on the high seas in 
the lawful pursuit of their trade, upon paltry pretences ; you have taken 
American seamen from our decks under the protection of the stars and 
stripes, upon pretences false and frivolous, incarcerated them in filthy 
dungeons, and you have liberated them only at your own pleasure; you 
have arrested our people, unjustly confiscated their property, and you 
have murdered them without the shadow of a trial ; — nay, you have so 
systematized fraud, so established corruption in your own public offices, 
from the Captain General down, that our citizens who go there under 
your treaty have to administer to your rapacity to conduct their affairs. 
We will tell them this, and further, that throughout the whole of these 
outrages we have sought redress from the Captain General there, and 
have been put off on the paltry pretence that he had all power to do 
wrong but none to do right; and, sir, having proclaimed our purpose, 
I hope there is stamina, and strength, and power enough in this Gov- 
ernment, when we have exhausted these peaceful remedies, to let Spain 
feel that Cuba shall continue her aggressions no longer, but that hereaf* 
ter we will right the wrong where it is committed. And, sir, I would 
let Spain know that an American citizen, wherever he may go, whether 
standing within these halls, or beneath the dark portals of Cuba's pri* 
sons, cannot wander so far but that his country's interest will be felt and 
her power exerted to right his wrongs, even though it might lead to the 
end of Spain's dominion over Cuba. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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